UN Sanctions Monitor Calls For Arms Embargo On South Sudan

by Rachel Ogbu

The UN Sanctions Monitor, the UN panel that monitors the civil war for the security council have called for an arms embargo to be placed on South Sudan following acts of violence including civilians murder, rape, sexual slavery and child soldiers.

The monitors also said: UN peacekeepers in South Sudan are “attacked, harassed, detained, intimidated and threatened” and a UN report said both the government and the rebels had shown a “shocking disregard for civilian life.” Villages were burnt, farms were destroyed, gang-rape, sexual slavery, forced abortion and recruitment of children as soldiers.

“The constant attacks on women, the rape, enslavement and slaughter of innocents; the recruitment of thousands upon thousands of child soldiers; the deliberate displacement of vast numbers of people in such a harsh and poverty-stricken country – these are abhorrent practices that must be halted,” said UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, whose office compiled that report along with the UN mission in South Sudan.

But according to reports, Russia, backed by Angola, has been reluctant to support an arms embargo saying it would be one-sided as its easier to enforce on the government and not the rebels led by rebel leader Riek Machar.